In 1996, 3D Realms released the third game of the Duke Nukem series for the PC, Duke Nukem 3D. At the time of its release, it was arguably the best first person shooter ever made. Two years later, GT Interactive released a version for the N64. Since the release of the original, there have been many first person shooters, some of them easily surpassing the original version of the game, but a good game never dies, as Duke Nukem 64 proves.

You are Duke Nukem. You return to Earth, after having your plane shot down, only to find out that aliens have taken over the planet, and worst of all, stolen our babes! (Editor's note: Stephanie, our proofreader, sighs plaintively.) Duke must battle his way through Los Angeles, into space, then back to L.A. to defeat the Cycloid Emperor and restore peace to Earth.

All 28 levels from the PC version have made the transition to the N64, as well as a few from the Plutonium Pack add-on, although they are just for deathmatches. Most of the levels, however, have been modified. Buttons have moved, rooms have been added, but every level is essentially the same. One of the major reasons for these changes was the nudity content of the original. The porn store has turned into a gun shop, the dancing women are mostly missing, and there isn't a hooker to be seen. Everything considered, the level design is some of the best in this genre. The transition from one level to the next is beautiful, and the levels follow the plot nicely. One thing that sets the level design apart from other games is that you must use certain items to get through some sections. For example, you might need to pick up the scuba gear to swim a long distance underwater.

The N64 has definitely seen some better graphics than those found in Duke Nukem 64, although, that doesn't mean they're awful. The game runs at a nice high frame-rate, without a trace of fog or pop-up. Sometimes, however, I experienced slowdown when many characters were surrounding me. The sprite-based enemies aren't the best looking - there are very few frames for each character, which is very noticeable when close to them. While most of the graphics are from the original, the guns have been redone, as have the explosions, which are now absolutely gorgeous.

Duke Nukem 64's sound effects are great. The guns and explosions sound excellent and you can always hear things lurking around the next corner. Besides the normal sound effects, Duke's famous one-liners have made it into this version. While some of them have been cut due to censoring, new ones have to been recorded to replace them, and sound as great as the older ones. One noticeable exception in the level of quality is the music. The theme music is really good, and leaves you wanting more, but, unfortunately, there is no music during gameplay. The music in the original was great, and I was hoping for remakes of the original tunes.

Fans of Turok will have no problem with the default controls, which are essentially the same in this game. Those who prefer using the control stick also have that option. What is missing, though, are fully customizable controls. There are four presets and none of them were exactly where I would have preferred them. With all the things Duke must do, all of the buttons are used. You even need to use the digital d-pad for selecting weapons and items, and the L button to activate items. While it may seem a bit awkward to use every button, it only takes a level or two to get used to it. The game is also Rumble Pak compatible, although it only rumbles when there is an explosion. It would have been nice to feel vibrations when shooting the sub-machine guns.

Aside from the usual arsenal of a pistol, shotgun, and machine gun, Duke has some very unusual weapons at his disposal. The shrinker, laser-trip mine, and pipe bombs have all made it from the original, but there are also some new ones. They include an expander, the opposite of the shrinker; a grenade launcher; a missile launcher; and a plasma cannon, which, when charged, can be very powerful.

The multiplayer mode in Duke Nukem 64 is very nice. There are two different options, Dukematch and co-op. The Dukematch pits one to four players against each other in a battle on any of the levels in the game. The best thing about this mode is that up to three players can be computer controlled 'duke bots'. There are different skill levels for these bots, and, on the hardest skill, they can be very tough to beat. As good as it is, the multiplayer mode isn't perfect. Your view is fairly restricting, and the walls look very blurred when in close, making it hard to tell exactly where you are. When playing the co-op mode, two people get to shoot their way through the game. This option is not seen in many console games and is a nice feature.

Overall, Duke Nukem 64 isn't the best first person shooter. Since there are few improvements, anybody who's played the original won't really be playing this for long. However, if you've never played the original, and have played Goldeneye to death, this is definitely worth checking out.